Bountiful OB-GYN re-arrested, charged with sexual abuse of a child

JESSICA KOKESH, Standard-Examiner Staff

BOUNTIFUL — A Bountiful OB-GYN accused of sending child pornography has been newly charged with several counts of sexual abuse.

Nathan Clark Ward, 55, was booked into Davis County Jail on Friday, Aug. 4, and is being held without bail. He has been charged in 2nd District Court with one count of sodomy upon a child, a first-degree felony; one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony; one count of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; and two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

In addition to the new charges, Ward faces six counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. He was arrested on those charges July 19, following an eight-month investigation by the Internet Crimes Against Children task force. He had been a practicing OB-GYN for more than 25 years and was suspended from Lakeview Hospital after his arrest, according to the Desert News.

He was out of jail on a $10,000 bond when the latest charges were filed.

Ward is accused of having sexual contact with at least one minor female on several occasions between 2012 and 2015, a probable cause statement filed in connection with the case says. The Davis County Attorney’s Office declined to clarify whether Ward is accused of abusing one or multiple girls.

Court records say in 2012, Ward allegedly touched the genitals of a 13-year-old girl and put his genitals in her mouth.

Between 2012 and 2015, he did the same to a minor female with whom he was in a “position of special trust” on one occasion and touched her breasts on another occasion.

Ward was first arrested in July after the Internet Crimes Against Children task force received a CyberTip from Yahoo warning of “apparent child sexually exploitive images being uploaded from a Yahoo messenger account: clark_bueno,” according to court documents. The photos were uploaded in September and November 2016 from two IP addresses traced to Lakeview Hospital and St. Mark’s Hospital.

The case was handed over to the ICAC detective with the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, and the detective did a “knock and talk” with Ward in February 2017. Ward allegedly denied any knowledge of the Yahoo account or the photos, according to court documents.

Police say Yahoo disclosed in May that the account, which was created in 2002, had the same date of birth as Ward’s and had the same address that Ward had in 2002.

Yahoo also turned over four pages of “friends,” some with connections to the medical field and many others with sexual names, according to court records.

Altogether, Yahoo provided investigators with 37 photos — seven of which were of sexually exploited children — from the account, court documents say. Others were of family and voyeuristic photos of underage females.

Investigators also found Ward allegedly had several explicit online conversations via messenger, email and Craigslist ads, the court records say.

Ward’s initial court appearance is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 11.

Reach digital producer Jessica Kokesh at 801-625-4229 or jkokesh@standard.net. You can also follow her on Twitter at @JessicaKokesh or Facebook.com/ByJessKokesh.